Those involved in physical fitness and competitive physical activity, in conjunction with medical professionals, recognize the importance of proper body alignment during any form of physical exertion. Proper body alignment makes all motion more efficient by focusing the energy in the desired direction and eliminating wasted motion. Further, proper body alignment reduces the stress and strain on the body caused by repetitive misaligned motion.
The foot, in its most naturally relaxed position, is not flat footed. For example, if a person takes the weight off of the foot, it has been found that it cants up to various degrees on the inside. It is well known that flat-footed people can develop knee problems since the leg becomes out of alignment when the ankle is unnaturally twisted and the knee has to twist to compensate for this situation.
Many sporting activities involve repetitive forceful exertion of energy through the legs and feet, for example, in bicycling and skiing. Bicycling requires that the foot be attached to some apparatus, such as a pedal on the bicycle, that is used in the translation of human energy (i.e., muscle power) into forward motion. However, it has been recognized that when the foot is attached to a flat surface, the leg is forced into an unnatural position. An observation of the foot in its natural state reveals that it prefers to be in an angled position with the inside of the foot higher than the outside. When the foot is forced to be flat it causes a misalignment of the entire leg, from the ankle, through the knee to the hip joint.
Many serious bicycle riders wear bicycle shoes which have a cleat which is attachable to the bicycle shoe. Many modern day bicycle pedals provide a coupling device for the cleat to snap in very positively to the pedal. This cleat/pedal combination provides the ability for the rider to not only push down but to also pull up without his foot in the shoe coming off the pedal unless he specifically twists the cleat out of the coupling device. The twist out process enables the cleat to be released from the pedal, for example, if the rider needs to jump off the bicycle in the event of a crash.
There are various styles and shapes of cleats which affix to the bicycle shoe, each cleat typically having holes therethrough to allow the cleat to be attached to the shoe, such as by screws which engage a series of threaded holes which are formed into the sole of the shoe. Each of the various styles of cleats do exactly the same thing, namely, they clamp onto the pedal coupling device arrangement, as basically a spring trap-like mechanism that holds the shoe in place so that the bicyclist does not lose his footing on the pedal. When a bicyclist uses presently known shoe/cleat/pedal attachment devices, misalignment inherently occurs, essentially rendering the bicyclist's relationship to the pedals a flat-footed one. There are several ramifications of this misalignment for the bicyclist. First, the pedaling motion is made less efficient because less power is being delivered to the pedal since misalignment in any power delivery system causes a loss of power delivered to its final intended point. Second, the strain on the joints via tendons, ligaments and muscles is increased. Finally, the knees tend to wobble from side to side on the up and down or forward and back strokes, a further indication that an out-of-alignment situation exists with its resulting decrease in power delivery. It therefore becomes more difficult, due to these losses and strain, to apply muscle power by the foot to the pedal. And, it is particularly more difficult to pedal the bicycle at higher speeds, such as in bicycle racing conditions.
Orthotic devices have been developed to attempt to remedy problems of foot misalignment and custom made and production orthotic devices have been developed for use in the field of bicycling. However, such orthotic devices are limited to the alignment of the bicyclist's foot from the instep rearward to the heel in a neutral position. Orthotic devices do not affect the forefoot and indeed only extend from the bicyclist's heel forward to just past the arch of the foot. While these devices do place the foot from the ball to the heel in its natural position, they do not affect the position of the forefoot. It is, however, through the forefoot (i.e., the ball of the foot) that the bicyclist delivers his power. In fact, the attachment of a bicycling shoe to a pedal is standardly made under the ball of the foot. A discontinued commercially available device made by Marresi shoes of Italy, is a shoe wedge built into the extreme forward position on the sole. It was to be used in conjunction with the old toe clip and toe strap systems. The wedge was non adjustable and angled the foot such that the inside of the foot was forced to be in a lower position than the outside of the foot. However, when the foot was placed on the pedal of the era, the ball of the foot was ultimately in a flat position.
Custom foot bed designs placed inside the bicyclist's shoe have also been made in an attempt to improve foot pedaling efficiency. While these custom foot bed designs are intended to improve the bicyclist's power delivery to the pedals and increase comfort, they are not intended to change the angular position of the forefoot. Their effect is limited to changing angular positions of the heel and ankle relative to the sole of the foot. Some commercially available devices are the DIADORA POWER BED (trademark) and SUPERFEET (trademark) both of which are custom molded footbeds for users. The latter is intended for use in skiing and bicycling while the former is for bicycling only.
Other approaches involve shoes which are contoured to the feet. However, these approaches merely attempt to address the problem of supporting the foot in the shoe, e.g., adding arch support. Such support does not address the problem of the foot being held down in an unnatural position, i.e., locked flat on the pedal.
Another approach which attempts to improve foot pedaling efficiency, involves a rotational pedal system wherein a pedal/shoe/cleat combination provides what is known as "float". The BIO-CLEAT II (trademark) pedal system and the TIME BIOPERFORMANCE (trademark) pedal systems, among others, give the shoe/cleat a certain amount of rotation on the pedal to compensate for misalignment of the ankle, knee and hip when forced into the unnatural situation of the foot/shoe being attached to the pedal. However, these "floating" pedal systems are merely an attempt to cure the symptom rather than the cause in that these systems merely allow the hip, knee, ankle and foot to oscillate while the bicyclist completes each 360.degree. rotation of the pedals following the abnormal positioning and ensuing movement of the foot.
In the field of downhill skiing, a rather primitive and then sophisticated canting mechanism was once used. In an attempt to keep a flat ski for the skier, the age-old practice was to place a flat wooden popsicle stick between the toe and heel of the ski bindings and the ski. Thus, the stick extended along the length of the foot to cant the inside portion of the foot upwardly to counteract the effect of the ski boot and inward pronation by the individual. The hoped-for effect of this was to cause the ski to be in a flattened position to equalize the ability to turn in any direction. It was also believed to deter catching ski edges when skiing, and to prevent riding the edge of the ski. The stick was thought to enhance the skier's control of the skis and therefore, the ability to ski well.
Subsequently, sophisticated metal and plastic wedges were manufactured to be used instead of popsicle sticks. These wedges required a professional to fit them to the user and then to install them between the ski binding and the ski to lie along the foot length and bias the inside portion of the foot upwardly. The wedges were adjusted to counteract the undesirable canting brought about by the ski boot for that particular wearer and to counteract undesirable pronation tendencies of the user. Today, with ski boots being adjustable along numerous planes to cant the foot in various different and combined directions, this age-old system is seldom used. The boots are better able to adjust the foot cant to attend to various issues than the stick and the wedges, and the boots can be adjusted by the user without the need of a professional or amendment of the ski by a professional. Of course, the concerns of a skier are not those of a bicyclist, tennis player, walker or other shoe user. For the bicyclist, the positioning of the body and legs with respect to a bicycle pedal when riding differ significantly from the positioning of the body and legs with respect to a ski when skiing. The same can be said for a runner, tennis player, and walker. Necessarily, different muscles are used in different ways and are affected by different equipment used in the sport and the base or terrain on which the equipment is used. A device that maximizes one's power and control in one sport does not necessarily do so in another. In particular, the bicyclist is largely interested in affecting the ball of the foot as opposed to the entire length of the foot. With a skier, affecting primarily the ball of the foot to the exclusion of the remainder of the foot could worsen one's ability to practice the sport.
Finally, there is available an orthotic pedal device BIOPEDAL (trademark) designed by Dr. Harry Hlavac and Mr. B. Koski of Marin County, Calif. This pedal is an adjustable orthotic device constructed in three planes for angling the foot when placed thereon and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,915 for use with bicycles including toe straps. Orthopedic devices, outside wedges and lifts connected to the shoe, according to the inventors, are not viable devices because of the tight fit of the shoe, their positioning in the arch and heel areas, and their potential for interfering with the cleat mechanism of the shoe. Accordingly, these inventors have invented an adjustable pedal that can be lifted; pivoted about a radial axis perpendicular to the axis of the shaft to provide toe-in, toe-out positions; tilted about that same axis to provide inverted and everted foot positions; and set in a fixed position with respect to the shaft. The device is best adjusted after consultation with a podiatrist or other specialist to attend to the specific needs of the user. In 1988, the device sold for $170 and an evaluation of one's particular needs to properly adjust the pedal was available through Biolab in Mill Valley, Calif. for $150.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a simple method and apparatus that permits the foot to be in its natural position when engaging in activities that require it to be attached to a device that, generally, would otherwise force the foot into a flat and unnatural position, such as a bicycle pedal. In particular, there is a need for a method and apparatus that permits the front part of the foot to be in its natural position, namely a method and apparatus that ensures that the foot and leg will be properly aligned when muscle power is applied by a bicyclist through his legs into the pedal, thereby improving the efficiency of his power delivery. There is also a need for a device of this nature which can be used for professional bicyclists and hobbyists, which is: inexpensive, may be used by the user without the need of a professional evaluation, and may be used on old and new model bicycles and professional and non professional shoes used for biking.